


Down the Road and Back Again

by DriftingPhoenix



Category: The Avengers (2012)
Genre: Coulson Lives, F/M, Fury/Coulson Bromance, Gen, Homophobia, M/M, Mentioned: Phil Coulson/OC, Minor Clint Barton/Phil Coulson, Nick Fury Lies, Nick Fury/OC - Freeform, Not by Fury, Phil Coulson & Nick Fury Friendship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-04-20
Updated: 2013-04-20
Packaged: 2017-12-09 00:28:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,365
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/767858
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DriftingPhoenix/pseuds/DriftingPhoenix
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Nick was twelve when he met his best friend for life.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Down the Road and Back Again

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first time posting anything, so be gentle. 
> 
> Also many many thanks to my Beta. (She know who she is)

Nick was twelve when he met his best friend for life. It was at his father’s company family picnic. He didn’t want to go. He had broken his arm last week which meant spending the whole picnic inside some picnic center so he wouldn’t get hurt again. But his father had commanded that everyone in the family had go. No one argued with Jack Fury, so Nick went.

 

It was their fathers that introduced them. Tim “Dum Dum” Dugan was an impressive man. His son, Phil, wasn’t.  He was short and had sticks for arms. He had a cast on his right leg. Nick looked over at Phil’s cast. It wasn’t covered in names like his, but it did have a rather cool drawing of Captain America’s shield.

 

They were introduced then told to stay put at a picnic table in the shade.  

 

“Nice cast,” Phil commented.

 

“Fell off the second story fire escape.”

 

“Couple of stupid bullies pushed me down the front steps at school. They got expelled. I got a cast.  The way these things itch I think they got the better deal.” Phil said.  Nick laughed.

 

It was silent for a while. They watch their dads stand by the barbeque and talk, “I think the cast are  why they put us together,”

 

“Put the gimps together, it’s just  good tactics,” Nick said.  

 

“We should do the three legged race. It might be the only thing they let us compete in,” Phil said.

 

Nick nods, “Could be fun,”

 

It was a tight race between them and the Livingworth twins but they won.  

 

But their  friendship wasn’t cemented until after. When Tim was yelling at Phil for most likely reinjuring his leg.

 

“Sir, this is all my fault,” Nick said.

 

“Nick,” Phil started.

 

“No, Phil. I am the one who talked you into it. I wasn’t thinking,”

 

Tim looked him over and Nick look as guilty as he could, “I am sorry, sir.”

 

“Alright then, you two can stay out trouble the rest of the day. That means staying put on that bench.”

 

Both boys nodded and returned to the bench

 

“You didn’t have to do that,” Phil spat at him bitterly.

 

“I know. I felt like it. It’s not like you really walked on it. ,” Nick said. “I wouldn’t want my dad to yell at me infront of everyone.”

 

Phil pulled back in surprise, “Oh. Thank you.”

 

 

 

And they have been best friends ever since.

 

Phil was there when Nick’s letter from West Point came. Phil opened it when Nick was too nervous. He got in. Nick was the first person Phil called when he got into not only Harvard but the ROTC program.

 

They only got to see each other once year when they were in college. They would write weekly letters, and they managed to meet up once a year. (They don’t call. They’re not girls. )

 

One year in a dive bar (that didn’t ask for ID so long as you paid cash and didn’t make trouble) Nick leaned in. “Next time I am up in Boston, I am going to have to meet this Alexander. I need to make sure he’s treating you right.”   Not that Nick need to worry to much about him as Phil had filled out over the years but he still had more agility than strength.

 

“How did you know?” Phil asked panicked. (It would be the first and last time that Nick would see that look on his friend face. Later Phil will tell him that of the people he knew he was most scared to come out to him. Nick will tell that he was always a little too into Captain America for any straight man.)

 

“You almost put hearts around his name every time you use it,” Nick told him.

 

“Yeah, well. I want to meet this Shirley that you have been on going on about,” Phil pointed his glass of scotch at him.

 

“Only seems fair. But we aren’t dating. She has a boyfriend back home.” Nick adjusted his long leather coat nervously.

 

“How long do you give them?” Phil said

 

“End the semester if he doesn’t cheat on her again,” Nick muttered in his beer.

 

“Good. Pool?” Phil asks.

 

“Sure,” Nick says.

  
  


The next time Phil called him was to tell him that he got into every law school he applied to. Nick was not surprised Phil was in the top percentile while being an active soldier. Phil was impressive. Nick congratulated him and informed Phil that Nick  had been given new assignment based in New York. Phil told him that Columba did give him a full ride scholarship.

 

So they would meet to play pool once a week when Nick was town and Phil wasn’t too busy with law school. They were old friends in the same city, it just made sense. Tactically.

 

When Tim died of heart attack. It was Nick who stood beside Phil at the funeral. When Phil’s older brother James called Phil a faggot, Nick punched him and told him that was dishonoring his father's memory by using such language. Phil doesn’t know about this because he was out of room at the time. Nick doesn’t tell him and James left the wake before Phil get back.  When Nick’s son was born it was Phil who was sitting next to him in the waiting room.  

 

Nick was deployed to parts unknown  two weeks later. They lost contact.

 

It would be ten years before they see each other again. They wrote when they could but Nick was busy with  his new position in the Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division. Phil was working his way quickly up the Army ranks. So fast he didn’t even finish law school.

 

Nick just been made deputy director, the youngest ever.  It had only cost him an eye and his marriage. (He missed the eye, it made aiming easier.)  On his first real assignment as deputy director.  He was supposed to recruit some Pentagon egghead, highly sought after by every government agency with an acronym.  Nick wasn’t going to screw this up.   

 

When they showed him the picture, he smiled.

  
  


He let himself into the man’s apartment. One of those pre-furnished cookie cutter kind meant for people who didn’t care too much but wanted others to think they cared.  Nick had stayed in hotel that looked more homey.

 

He made coffee with the only appliance that looked like it had any use.  He had just poured two cups the door opened.

 

“I like the new place,” Nick called over shoulder.

 

“It’s only temporary. I gave Alex the old one.” Phil took off his tie and jacket as he walked into the kitchen area.

 

Nick put both mugs on the table. He decide not to bring up that Alex and Phil broke up three years ago. Instead he said,  “I never thought he was a good fit for you?”

 

Phil fold his jacket across the back of his chair then sat down. “So can we get to point where you tell me who you work for?”

 

“I would hate for you miss Real World,” Nick handed him his creamer. “I work for Strategic Scientific Reserve,”

 

“So you’re just going to tease me,” Phil took a sip of his coffee.

 

“We go by Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division now,” Nick told him.

 

“You’re not joking,” Phil said. Nick shook his head.

 

“Well it would make sense us working together. Tactically speaking, we are quite the team,”

 

“It would make the Captain proud,” Nick said.

 

“Don’t oversell it,” Phil said.  

 

**Epilogue**

 

Now Nick sits in a hospital room waiting for his friend to wake up from major surgery. He knows that Barton will show up after Loki has been sent back to Asgard. Nick will go back to being Director Fury with ease of knowing that his best friend will be well looked after.

Until then Nick remembers the real cards that Phil has locked away in safety deposit box under an assumed name right next to their trophy for the three legged race. The proof that they are still that scrappy little kids at heart getting in things they shouldn’t.  
  
  



End file.
